Confirmed: Adam Lallana returns to Saints

I have no axe to grind with Lallana, he left for his career as football is a business with no room for sentiment. And it's on that basis I'd say 'no' to his return as a first teamer.

I just think there are better options we could pursue in this position and we shouldn't be blinded by sentimentality just because of his history with the club.

 

Considering we are likely going to spend over half of our transfer budget on keeping 2 players we already had this season then some shrewd cheap transfers makes sense.

No idea what he’s like as a player anymore due to his age, can’t see him being the player he was when he left but as a squad option can’t really complain unless we have a **** ton of money to spend (I suppose we could now we are promoted as we made a very healthy profit on transfers last season which I assume wasn’t spent due to being in the Championship and balancing books/keeping a nest egg/not being able to attract players to actually spend the money on)

 

On a free I don’t really have an issue with this


I do struggle a little to see where he fits into Russell’s tactics

 

Forgive and forget.
His skills around the edge of the box are what we have been missing for years and he could be a decent option off the bench if we are looking to create an equaliser or winner.

 

I appreciate it might come across as negative, but I'd be inclined to keep some of that nest egg just in case we need it for 2025-26. Obviously 12 months is a long time in football, but if we were to get relegated, would we be in a position to raise the sort of money next summer that we raised last summer?

Look at Burnley. After their relegation two years ago, they were able to raise good money from McNeil, Pope, Cornet and Collins. They also still had most of the money from the Wood sale a few months earlier. But this summer, who could they sell for similar money? Their squad looks far worse than it did 24 months ago. And to make matters worse, they will only receive a maximum of two years of parachute payments rather than three.

 

Yeah if Bedders can redeem himself, maybe twat beard can too

 

The little rat has a lot of apologising to do.

 

New Director of Football?

 

Another Theo signing, no thanks. We need to be looking forward, not backwards. I would like to think the SR scouting team have better options.

 

I think the only similarity is that they are ex-saints and towards the end of their careers.

Other than that, it is very different. Lallana never had, or relied on, pace, Theo on the other hand... well, you know.

Lallana's best attributes are all technical, and not only are they the last to go, but they are extremely important for Martin's style of play.

He will also be on very low wages and working towards a coaching role too.

The squad lacks leadership and experience, he has both of those.

It is a no brainer that can't really go wrong imo.

 

Yeah it’s a fair point, but without significant investment this squad is just not PL level. So keeping some money back in case we go down might be what causes us to go down.

The only PL “proven” players we have are McCarthy, KWP, S Armstrong, Bednarek and Adams (Adams is debatable) and 3 of them minimum are off. Sure there are some players like THB and Downes who we hope make the step up (if Downes signs of course) and there are players like Bazunu, A Armstrong, Stephens who have played in the PL but haven’t exactly shown they are any good at that level

Will be an interesting summer for sure and I’d expect a very busy one

 

Low wages, really? Wasn’t Theo one of our top earners? I agree we need some experience but Lallana flourished playing alongside lambert.

I just hope our starting wingers are a bit more promising than an ageing Lallana.

 

But an ageing Lallana could help those promising wingers flourish.

 

Imagine an ageing Lallana feeding Ross Stewart.

 

Do we not have coaches that can help them? It just seems exorbitant spending 50k per week on an old player who used to be reasonably good.

 

I think Adarma deserves his second shot, playing wide. I mean, he quite often needs a second shot, so...

 

True but he can also help them on the pitch too.

 

Yeah, Theo was a high earner but I dont think Lallana will be. Walcott was 32 when we signed him, Lallana is 36.

Lallana will also be signed with a view of moving into a coaching role too. He will be no where near our top earners.